The article I chose to talk about is "Let Our Voices Be Heard" by Elder M. Russell Ballard. In this talk he mentions how the family is at the heart of Heavenly Father's plan because we are all part of His family and because mortality is our opportunity to form our own families and to assume the role of parents. He also says that it is within these families that values are taught and character is built. I feel like he was saying that it is our responsibility to take care of His children here on Earth. He warns us of many different types of media that can have a negative effect on our lives if we do not choose it wisely. He says also that if we do not make good choices the media can devastate our families and even worse pull our children away from the Gospel path. Ballard warns us of cyberporn and its dangers. He says that there is a rapid increase in the act, involving sexual addiction over the internet. There are some people who become so addicted to viewing internet pornography and participating in dangerous online chat rooms that they ingore the covenants they made to their spouses and often neglect family obligations and such. Others take huge risks to maintain their perverted addiction which causes marraiges and relationships to fail and the individual loses every of true value. Before he concluded with his remarks, he mentioned a list of seven things every parent can do to minimize the negative effect media can have on our families.
1. We need to hold family councils and decide what our media standards are going to be.
2. We need to spend enough quality time with our children that we are consistently the main influence in their lives, not the media or any peer group.
3. We need to make good media choices ourselves and set good examples for our children.
4. We need to limit the amount of time our children watch TV or play video games or use the Internet each day. Virtual reality must not become their reality.
5. We need to use Internet filters and TV programming locks to prevent our children from "chancing upon" things they should not see.
6. We need to have TVs and computers in a much-used common room in the home, not in a bedroom or a private place.
7. We need to take time to watch appropriate media with our children and discuss with them how to make choices that will uplift and build rather than degrade and destroy.
I also watched several videos about internet safety before I taught me dear mother about Internet safety. I watched several videos about cyberbullying as well as predators that are online targeting really young teenage girls and it pretty much scared me. It is very important that we teach young people about the dangers that are out there. The videos I watched where the girls actually lived from this because a lot of times they don't live from getting involved with strangers online. One of the videos I watched involved a 15 year old girl who met a 22 year old online and wanted to have this guy come and meet with her, but her parents were very concerned, so her dad talked to a police friend and she gave him a video game called Missing that they could play together with their daughter. Because of this the girl recognized some similarities happening in the video game that were happening to her, so her parents were able to help her see the dangers of meeting this guy and she decided not to meet him all on her own. They finding out that this guy was wanted by the FBI and this girl helped put him behind bars. She was one of the lucky ones. These videos really opened my eyes a lot and scared me to the point of choosing carefully who I chat with online. I have been dating online and now I will take the necessary precautions to protect myself from predators as well.
I ended up teaching my mom about Internet safety. I asked her what came to her mind when I mention Internet safety and all she could think of was computer viruses and things like that, so I had lots to share with her. Once I mentioned what I had learned about, we had a really good discussion about what we should watche out for on the Internet and how to protect ourselves as well as the young people we know and love. I am pretty sure that she will do her part on educating young people about the dangers that are out there and I will definitely do the same.
I also completed steps 1-3 on the PLE for the week.
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